


What was stolen away

by SakuraAlexia



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Lilith lives, Maya Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-25
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:14:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24378562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraAlexia/pseuds/SakuraAlexia
Summary: There she was, the same woman that ruined his life was back once more. She was dead, and buried in some dark corner of the universe! Why was she right before him?“Y-you… you were supposed to be…” he stammered, pointing a trembling finger at her.“Dead?” she finished his sentence and gave a small dry laugh. “The reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated.”
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	1. Broken pieces

**Author's Note:**

> For the purpose of this story, Ava has inherited Tyreen's powers instead of Maya's.  
> This can be seen as a tiny sequel to "What it could have been" if you want.

Amara crossed the deck of the Sanctuary, an ECHO recorder in her hand. She and the others had talked long about this the night before, and agreed that she’d be the best candidate to deliver some news they had to keep to themselves for months, until the whole charade with the Calypsos was over.

It wasn’t because they had meant to keep the content of the recording the Siren was holding hidden, not at all, but they had been too busy with everything else, themselves, but especially the person the message was directed to.

If they had been busy with everything, then Maya had been even more busy than them, fighting for her life from the hungry clutches of death more than anyone else on the ship did during these times.

She made it, but recovering was proving to be another long and tedious process, the effect of Troy’s powers on her had been devastating, so much more than what Tyreen had done to Lilith before her even. Maya’s mind and spirit appeared untouched, she was a strong woman, however, her body had a hard time fixing itself up from the mark that was left on it.

Sirens were strong, but their bodies still remained pretty much the same as a normal human, weak and fragile. They were just as breakable as every other person, and this experience had been nothing but a harsh reminder for them all, that behind those amazing powers and sparkling tattoos, Sirens were still just as mortal.

Regardless, this issue had to be solved, and Maya had to know about what was happening on her home planet too. She would decide how to deal with it, Lilith had made it clear that it was the Athenian’s decision only, and that whatever she would want to do, they would support her.

They would have supported Maya anyways, they were friends after all, and Lilith’s words left no room for arguments, not that they had any.

Reaching the door of her fellow sister’s room, Amara softly knocked, she didn’t want to bother her if she was resting or anything, and the silence that came from inside made it clear that she might have been. Silence meaning Ava not being in the room with her teacher and nothing else. The kid hadn’t been leaving her side almost at all ever since the Promethean Vault incident, and honestly? Who could blame her?

The black Siren was about to leave and almost didn’t hear the quiet invitation to enter the room from its owner.

Amara was greeted with a bright smile from the other woman, who was lying on her bed with a book in her lap.

“Amara.” she smiled again. “I was so absorbed into my book I almost didn’t hear you.”

“I hope I’m not disturbing.” she sat down on the chair close to the beds.

The other Siren chuckled. “Never, company is always welcome, it gets lonely here.” she laughed again. “But I’m actually glad that Tannis isn’t keeping me hostage in the infirmary anymore, she’s done an amazing job of course, but labs have never been my kind of favorite places.” 

“I can’t imagine staying closed in a room for more than a few hours, I don’t know how you do it.” Amara said, smiling herself. “But I suppose you don’t have another choice at the moment.”

“No, not really.” Maya moved to sit up so she could face the other woman better, and the small grunt she made didn’t go unnoticed to Amara.

“Does it still hurt?” she asked, concern evident, her fellow sister had suffered enough already.

She was met with a small nod. “Just dull aches all over, it’s somewhat manageable, but still not really comfortable.”

“I can imagine.” she sighed. “Anyways, this is not the only reason I am here.” she held out the recorder for Maya to take.

“A message? For me?”

“I can say it won’t be pleasant, but me and the others thought you had to know anyways. I can leave if you want to listen in peace.” Amara motioned towards the door.

“No, no, it’s fine, you can stay.”

The black Siren sat down again, watching as Maya turned the recording on in complete silence, she didn’t need to say anything, and just let the other woman judge on her own. And as soon as the first voice was heard, she could see that the Athenian was not pleased in the slightest.

She held a glare the entire time as they kept listening, and if her powers allowed it, she probably would have melted the recorder by just looking at it, if the pulsing markings at Maya’s side were of any indication on how upset she was.

Who wouldn’t be angry when someone tried to kill you behind you back? It wasn’t the first time someone stabbed her in the back either, which made her even more pissed. After everything she had done to protect Athenas, despite the fact that she utterly despised the monastery and its occupants, despite the fact that she didn’t have any obligations towards the civilians either, she came back to protect those people, all of them, because it was the right thing to do… and this was what she was getting?

Not only, he even got a child in danger, he dragged Ava into the whole mess too!

“Oh he is going to pay for this…” Maya growled under her breath, as she pretty much threw the recorder back at Amara, who just shrugged.

“Can’t say he didn’t have it coming, but may I ask why does he hate you so much?”

The Athenian just sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“Well, we have time.” 

“I’d rather tell everyone then, make it equal, your friends would want to know too I assume.”

“They probably would, should I call them and tell them to come here?” Amara asked, already with her ECHO in hand.

Maya shook her head. “I’d rather just get to your quarters, I believe that’s where the rest of you is.”

The other Siren just frowned. “I thought Tannis forbid you any strenuous activity.”

Regardless, Maya moved to stand, helping herself holding on to the top bunk and the wall. “I can’t always sit here and do nothing, I’m not that bad to not be able to walk entirely.”

Amara just sighed, but she didn’t complain, Sirens were stubborn this way, she was too, and in a way, she understood her, staying cooped up in a room doing nothing wasn’t her idea of fun either, and she assumed Maya was getting tired of sitting around. They were women of action after all. 

“Okay, but at least hold on to me yeah? Can’t have you falling on me, sister.”

“All right, all right, let’s do it your way.” Maya chuckled as she wrapped an arm around Amara’s shoulders as she held her by the waist.

The duo made its way back to the crew’s quarters, where Amara and the other’s rooms were located, albeit slowly, to not stress out Maya’s legs too much, but they made it. Even if the black Siren had to often resist the urge to just carry the other woman in her arms, but she wouldn’t risk upsetting her further. She just didn’t like to see a friend suffer.

The others were playing a game of cards around the table in the middle of the deck, but stopped everything once they spotted the two Sirens.

“Thought we wouldn’t see ya on yer own two feet anytime soon lass.” Zane greeted Maya, and stood up to allow her to sit in his place. Ava immediately walked over to hug the Siren and climb on her lap.

“What can I say? I don’t like sitting around too much.” she just shrugged.

“What brought you here, Maya? I assume you got the news right?” Lilith questioned.

“I did, and as you can imagine, I ain’t happy about it.” Maya looked over all of them for a moment. “I presume you all know about this too.”

Fl4k nodded at her. “We do, and we are awaiting your directions.”

The Athenian stared at Lilith in disbelief. “Don’t look at me, I might be the commander, but Athenas is your planet, so it is your choice to make.” she held out her hand in defense. 

“I want him dead, no, I want to see him beg me to kill him, and pay for what he and his little friends have done.” Maya huffed angrily as she rubbed her eyes. “I should have done this much sooner, when I returned from Pandora, I should have known they were just going to cause me trouble.”

“But why would he do this? Weren’t you protecting them?” Ava frowned at her. “I thought the monks were good people, peaceful.”

Maya softly petted the kid’s hair. “There’s so much you don’t know, that I kept hidden because I felt that you didn’t need to concern yourself with my problems, and my past. Anything you have seen from them, it wasn’t that way years ago, it wasn’t like that at all.”

They all waited for her to speak further, not daring to ask to not make her too uncomfortable, it didn’t look like an easy subject to talk about for the Siren.

“The Order of the Impending Storm was once lead by another monk, Brother Stephen Sophis, he was in charge of everything, the entire monastery was under his domain, and, so was I.” she took a breath, forcing herself to continue. 

“I was brought to him as soon as I was born, he was my handler, my trainer, and in a certain way, somewhat of a father too… I was just a kid, and I grew up with him, I thought he was protecting me…” she bit her lip and hung her head. Ava hugged her tighter, and felt Maya tremble against her smaller body.

Lilith put a hand on the Siren’s shoulder, continuing where she had left with what little she knew from what Maya herself told her years before. “He never meant to do such thing, he took Maya in and used her status as Siren to scare the people of Athenas into submission, to gain favors and money, threatening that she would have killed them if they disobeyed.”

The Firehawk looked over at the other woman, who was nodding slowly, and took her silence as an indication to continue.

“Maya found out after many years, and when she did, she killed the guy and then fled Athenas and came to Pandora, and after well… she met us. That is about all I know.”

“After the whole ordeal with Jack and everything else was over, I decided to return home, mostly for personal reasons as I wanted to keep studying about our race’s origins, but also I knew some of Sophis’ supporters would probably have tried to keep control of the population, so the right thing to do was for me to go back and take control of the monastery myself. Those people did nothing to me to deserve to suffer like that again, they were victims as much as I had been.” Maya continued where Lilith couldn’t.

“I assume then that this Brother Sinon was one of those supporters, therefore he must not have appreciated your return home and messing with his plans.” Fl4k mused.

“Which brings us to his plan to try and get rid of you, convincing Maliwan to work for him, bribing them with the piece of the Vault Key you were protecting.” Moze said.

“But they didn’t expect us coming to the rescue, heh, and I’m glad we did.” Zane smiled. “Those idiots didn’t know what hit them.”

“But then you left Athenas to help us again and… the whole thing at the Promethean Vault happened…” Lilith sighed, this was still a touchy subject. “Through the Calypsos’ broadcasts, the whole universe is convinced you died in that place, but, you are still here, alive and kicking.”

Maya allowed herself a smile. “It was thanks to you all, you saved me.”

The affirmation was met with a chorus of “Not a problem.”, “You’re welcome.” and “We’re glad you’re here.” from them all, and for a moment, surrounded by her friends, Maya forgot about the whole unpleasant burden that her past life had been.

Zane cleared his throat, returning serious again. “Anyways, I think we can all see where this whole shite is going to.” he was met with nods from everyone.

“Thanks to the Calypsos’ stupid videos existing, that man must be thinking you are dead, therefore with the only obstacle between him and ruling Athenas being gone, nothing could have stopped him from taking control again.” Amara finished the train of thoughts pretty much all of them were thinking about.

“That is why we’re going to Athenas to get rid of him and his little group once and for all.” Maya said, more serious than ever. “I had given the Order another chance, because I didn’t want to be like the monster they wanted and raised me to be, some of them actually did feel sorry and apologized, they wanted to help me when I was younger, but Sophis had too much of an influence for them to be able to, but they did gladly accept my return, but others… they didn’t, they still hated me, and it only got worse when I took Ava in.” 

“I’m sorry Maya…” the kid fidgeted with the hem of her shirt.

“It’s none of your fault Ava, they hate me and my decisions, therefore, they hate everyone that is close to me as well, I heard them say awful things about the Raiders too, and always behind my back.”

“Sounds like one more reason to get rid of this guy and his little friends.” Lilith snorted. 

“I want to come along too, he fooled me as well, and he’s a bad guy and I don’t like him.” Ava looked at her mentor with pleading eyes. “Please don’t say no.” she asked, knowing better than to not ask for permission, she didn’t want a repeat of the last time she didn’t listen, at all.

“Of course.” Maya smiled down at her.

“Wait… really? Thought you were going to refuse.” the kid frowned.

“Nobody makes fun and puts my apprentice in danger and gets away with it, am I right?”

“Oh yeah!” Ava looked at her left arm. “Does it mean I can use my new powers? Won’t it be dangerous?” she wasn’t convinced about the whole leech thing still, but she had been practicing with pretty much all the other resident Sirens when Maya was too tired and sick to teach her.

“Think at it as training, how about that? And if you’re afraid of your powers going out of control, I’ll be there to help, don’t be afraid okay?” she gently caressed the teen’s cheek. 

“We will all be there to help, both of you.” Lilith squeezed both Maya’s and Ava’s shoulder for encouragement.

“We’ll make him pay for what he did, sister.” Amara cracked her knuckles. “Putting assholes like those in their place is my favorite thing.”

“We will be leaving as soon as Tannis says that Maya is good to be back on the battlefield, I ain’t taking the risk, even if they’re monks, and also, I assume you’d like to deal with them yourself, and you can’t do so when you can barely support yourself.” the Firehawk motioned at Maya.

“That would be ideal, I want to see his face when he sees me.” she chuckled. “Sinon and the others are cowards, and I will enjoy putting the fear of God on them. They raised me wanting they little Siren to be a merciless killing machine, so I will give them exactly what they want.”


	2. Picking up the remains

It was a nice day on Athenas, the sun was shining brightly, perfect for a speech in the monastery’s courtyard, yes, today was a splendid day, they day where Brother Sinon would finally get back what should have been his, had that Siren bitch they had raised not come back years ago.

But it was fine, it was okay, because even if his plans of getting rid of her through the help of the Maliwan corporation didn’t work, it was good, because the woman was foolish. She wanted to be good, she wanted to be a protector, a hero, and she got exactly what people like her got, a death sentence caused by their dumb heroic feelings.

Had she stayed quiet and obeyed, she probably would not have ended up dead. What a stupid woman.

Regardless, soon he would be speaking to the population of Athenas, and he had to make it sad and convincing, those idiots loved and believed in their dear defender too much. Too bad for them she wasn’t coming back again, how unfortunate. He had been working on this for months now, and he wasn’t intentioned to mess up.

Clearing his throat and flanked by his loyal followers, Sinon stepped outside on the balcony where Sophis once used to give his own speeches, where the witch killed him.

Putting on his most saddened face he could manage, he started talking.

“People of Athenas, today is a sad day, today I come to you bearing bad news, terrible news…”

As he spoke, he was unaware of some people watching and listening to his charade, standing in a corner the furthest away possible, there were a group of Vault Hunters whispering to each other.

“Look at him, how disgusting…” Lilith snorted, watching the scene unfold alongside the rest. She didn’t act because Maya expressed the will to do it, they were there only to intervene in case of trouble.

“What a poor excuse of a human being.” Fl4k motioned at the display with their head.

“I really hate that guy…” Ava growled beside them.

“When do you have intention of acting, Maya?” Moze asked at the Siren, who had been silently watching with her arms folded across her chest, and an unreadable expression on her face.

“Soon… when I can make sure he will make a fool of himself the worst way possible when he will get to see me.”

The group feel back in silence, listening to Sinon’s ugly and totally fake speech, all with various degrees of anger and disgust rising in their chests. But it wasn’t time to act, not yet.

“I didn’t want to believe it, but our dear Siren warrior Maya has perished, a vile man took her life away. But we shall forever remember her, our defender, our protector, who has fallen in an attempt to create a better world for us to live in.” he made an effort to look sad, to make it look that he was crying even, covering his face with his hands, however he was smiling behind them. This was a victory.

There was a general noise from the citizens as they took the news in horror and disbelief, exactly how he thought it would happen. He wanted to laugh, but he had to hold himself back for now.

He was startled from his inner gloating when in the middle of the crowd someone started clapping their hands, slowly, in a mocking way. He looked over to see who dared to make fun of him, but didn’t realize who it was until he heard her voice, cold and familiar.

“What a bunch of nice words, but you can do better Sinon.” he met her glare, coming from a remote corner of the courtyard.

He didn’t want to believe it, but her dark clothes, her long cape, her blue hair, her piercing silver eyes and her shining blue markings on the left arm didn’t leave space for any more doubts. There she was, the same woman that ruined his life was back once more. She was dead, and buried in some dark corner of the universe! Why was she right before him?

“Y-you… you were supposed to be…” he stammered, pointing a trembling finger at her.

“Dead?” she finished his sentence and gave a small dry laugh. “The reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated.” she smirked at him. How dared she make fun of him this way?

“Let me guess… you were going to keep on your own little sad act, and then make it look like I left the lead of the monastery to you, isn’t that correct?” Maya continued, as she strode through the crowd, who moved aside to let her pass, looking at her in wonder.

“How are you insinuate such thing? You witch…”

“I heard better insults from some random psychos.” she bit back at him, he growled in frustration.

Maya then turned to the people standing around her, it was time to end this once and for all, with the pure and simple truth.

“Citizens of Athenas, I presume you still remember who Brother Sophis was, or at least most of you should. Well, you remember how much he hurt us, he had deceived both all of you and even myself for way too many years, extorting you money and favors I never asked for nor I ever wanted. Well… this man and all of those behind him...” she pointed at Sinon and then at all of his supporters standing close by.

“They are none others but Sophis’ faithful followers, and they dreamed of nothing more than to get rid of me from the moment I returned from Pandora, so they could rule the planet the same way he used to do, through lies and terror.” she lowered her arm, addressing the crowd once again.

“I came back to protect you all from this fate, even though I had no obligation to do so, I know you all were victims as much as me, and if I didn’t deserve to suffer, then neither did you. Things had happened afterwards, and in a fight to protect those dear to me, I did in fact almost lose my life.” she turned back where her friends were standing, and smiled.

“But those same people didn’t give up, they weren’t willing to let me go just yet, and did all they could to bring me back to them, also it is thanks to them if I am aware of what was going on behind my back too. So now, here I am, I apologize for taking so long, but I’m back to set things straight, like I should have done much sooner.” 

Maya’s markings glowed brightly as she raised her left arm towards the monks, wrapping them all in a Phaselock and dragging them down in the courtyard, breaking the railing of the balcony in the process.

“I’d suggest you leave, this will get ugly.” she said, unlike the ones that raised her, she did have some regard for the people of her planet. They didn’t need to see unnecessary violence.

Sinon and his friends cowered, backing away from the angry Siren as soon as she released the hold she had on them. One of them even managed to get up and attempt to run, however, Lilith with her Phasewalk appeared behind him, kicking the man in the back and sending him flying on the floor in Maya’s direction.

“Where did you think you were going?” the redhead taunted.

The rest of her friends walked over, weapons raised to the group of monks, ready to fire if they tried anything. Fl4k’s beasts were also growling and ready to pounce at the first signal.

“So you brought your little group of friends along this time? Can’t deal with your problems alone?” Sinon glared at her, attempting to fight back, but all he received was a kick to the face.

“Be silent…” Maya fumed, as she held the man’s head down under her boot. “It ain’t too different from what you’ve done, you’re quite the hypocrite to berate me now.” she pressed harder, taking delight in his squeals of pain.

“After all… you all have always been just a bunch of cowards and nothing else.” she removed herself from his face, but still she watched him closely.

“How dare you do this to us? You ungrateful bitch?” he barked again.

“And what should I be grateful for? For having been kept hostage in this place for twenty seven long years, without any sort of friendly human presence nor contact? I am nothing but happy to have left this place when I did.” she replied. She was just about to hit him again but stopped short.

“Ava, how about you show him your new powers?”

“I was waiting for you to say that.” the kid excitedly replied, showing off her own now marked arm.

“So the brat got some powers of her own? Fine, do your worst.” Sinon just laughed at her, succeeding in nothing but making her angry.

“I’ll show you what I can do, you asshole!” she yelled, Maya put a hand on her shoulder.

“Easy, he’s just trying to piss you off, show him, but don’t let yourself be taken away from your powers, control yourself, you’re better than what he thinks you are.” 

Ava nodded at her mentor, glaring down at the man who mocked her still. His expression changed quickly once she touched him and began leeching, from a smirking face he quickly became terrified, as he fought and choked as his strength was quickly sapped away.

She was so absorbed in her act that she almost didn’t hear Maya calling her out.

“Let him go, don’t kill him, it’s not time yet.”

It took a bit more of willpower, as the leech fought against her to keep eating energy, but she successfully released the hold she had on the man, relinquishing in the feeling of the pulsing new strength that settled into her arm and body.

“What? You want to do it yourself?” Sinon spat back at her as he weakly coughed.

“Something of sorts, even though killing you would just be a mercy, I know you would try to cause me more trouble if I kept you alive.” Maya glared.

“You mocked me and my friends, now your friends will suffer for your behavior.” she scoffed at him, and making eye contact with Lilith, she nodded.

“You heard Maya, Vault Hunters, no mercy!” the Firehawk ordered, as she also disappeared from their sights, only to reappear seconds later in front of one of the monks.

She grabbed his face him her hand and slammed him into the ground, before melting him with her flames until nothing was left but ashes.

Following her example, Amara had summoned her arms, and was pounding away another couple of monks with all of her six fists, sending blood flying all over her and everywhere else.

Fl4k’s beast were happily mauling away the remainings, until nothing was left but pieces, as their master simply watched and cackled in delight. Zane had chosen to stab another in the stomach with his digi-claws and left the man bleeding out on the floor.

As on another side Moze did things the quick way, simply blowing the head off from another monk with a shotgun, while Ava finished off the last, this time leeching the person entirely, until it dissolved into dust.

Sinon attempted to scurry away from the display of violence and carnage, but he was swept away from Maya’s Phaselock, which forced him to stay and keep watching and listen to his supporters’ painful cries as they fell one after the other.

“Are you happy?” came Maya’s question from beside him, and he could only give her a terrified look as he whimpered like a baby. 

“This is the kind of monster you raised me to be, you have no one else to blame but yourselves for this result.” she growled angrily, as she held him even tighter, compressing him into her dimensional bubble, as gravity pressed down on him, breaking all of his bones with sickening noises, until nothing more was there to be broken, and he crumpled to the floor, dead.

“This was far more violent that what we are used to do, but I say these people had it coming to them.” Lilith said as she looked over at the mess they did.

“So, what happens now?” Moze asked, clueless as anybody else.

Maya looked over at Lilith, as the two shared a look of understanding, apparently they had already planned this out.

“People of Athenas!” the blue Siren addressed the few brave enough that stayed to watch the execution. “From now on, this planet is under the protection of the Crimson Raiders!” she announced.

“I know that what you have just seen wasn’t very comforting, but I assure you, that even if we’re outlaws we are not bad people, and we will commit on protecting this place with all we have, every single one of us will.” she continued.

“Before I left Athenas, I had no idea what the meaning of having a friend was, but then I met them, the Raiders have been the family that has been negated to me from ever since I was born, and for as weird as we are, we love and support each other. These people have literally saved my life, in more ways than one, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.”

A series of smiles beamed from each one of them, Maya’s words touching all of them to the core.

“So please, give them a chance like you have given one to me. I promise you that we will not fail you.” she finished.

“This is all, you can go home. Tomorrow will be a better day.”

Maya waited until all of the citizens were out of sight to let herself go, stumbling a little before Amara steadied her. She couldn’t allow to show weakness nor falter until everything was over, and she was glad it was.

“You okay, sister?” the Siren held her up by the waist.

“Maya…” Ava worriedly whispered.

“It’s fine… I’m just a bit tired that is all. Looks like I haven’t completely recovered yet, but I couldn’t let it show, who would have trusted me?”

“You think these people will actually give us a chance?” Moze asked, more curious than anything else.

“They will come around, eventually. It took them a bit to accept me when I came back years ago too.”

“Anyways, very nice words lass, warmed me heart.” Zane chuckled.

“Yeah, that was an awesome speech, killer.” Lilith nodded.

“What can I do? I love you guys.” Maya smiled, she wouldn’t say it out loud if it was another situation, but her pride could be damned at the moment.

The rest smiled and laughed along, embracing each other around her in a group hug.

“And we love you.”


End file.
